Islamabad: A total of 20.11 million votes were cast out of 44.98 million registered voters in Pakistan's National Assembly during the 1988 general elections, reflecting a 44.7% voter turnout. The elections, held on November 16, 1988, were the nation's first competitive multi-party elections since 1977, following the death of General Zia-ul-Haq in a plane crash. The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Benazir Bhutto, won the largest number of seats, and Bhutto was subsequently sworn in as Prime Minister, becoming the first woman to lead a Muslim-majority nation. The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad emerged as the primary opposition alliance.

According to Free and Fair Election Network, of the 44.98 million registered voters, 51.9% were male and 45.1% were female, with a gender registration gap of 3.05 million, representing 6.8% of the total electorate. The systematic disaggregation of votes by gender was not part of the election administration framework at the time and was only incorporated in later election processes. The data showed that 316,875 ballots, or 1.6% of the total votes, were rejected due to errors such as incorrect ballot papers and marks that could not be attributed to a valid candidate.

The elections saw Punjab recording the highest absolute number of votes, in line with its share of the national registered electorate, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had lower polling figures. The turnout situates the 1988 elections within the broader trend of Pakistan's electoral participation rates, with the highest turnout recorded at 54.9% in 2013 and the lowest at 34.8% in 1997.